Hockey tournament amid warm Alberta temperatures raises concerns

A Chestermere ice hockey tournament got the go-ahead amid warmer-than-usual temperatures, but after several people fell through ice and died around the country, are there concerns for safety in the tournament?

The Tim Hortons Western Canada Pond Hockey Championship just outside of Calgary was at risk of even happening because the ice wasn’t thick enough.

Although the tournament received the city’s blessing and was deemed safe, in other areas of the province that hasn’t been the case.

Four recent deaths in Alberta happened because of ice instability, and a pair of teens in Ottawa died for the same reasons.

Event organizer Alex Halat says the event itself had to be scaled back because they were concerned about safety and the amount of ice it had to work with.

“At the time when we did it, it was right around seven inches of ice so we had to scale back the magnitude of the event,” he explained to CityNews.

“We weren’t allowed to get machines on the ice at the time so we had to go a little old school so we went from 16 rinks to nine rinks and we had to build them by hand, so shovels augers and pumps.”

Now, on day two of the tournament, he says the ice is measuring at 10 inches, which is three inches thicker than when officials originally gave the competition the go-ahead.

Read More: Western Canada Pond Hockey Championships get green light amid green winter

Halat says in past years the ice is normally about 11-13 inches thick. This year with thinner ice, organizers had to wait for approval, but it has been deemed safe, although the conditions and the downsized rinks caused 28 teams to be cut from the competition.

“Safety is always paramount with us we wouldn’t do anything without the engineers of the city and fire department to give us the green light, you know it would be irresponsible for anyone to do any event of any sort of water without the proper authority’s green light,” Halat said.

The deaths due to ice instability happening in a matter of days prompted the RCMP to issue a warning to the public about ice safety.

“Even if you know an area or you are going out it may be okay to go out one day, but then change within a very quick period due to these warm temperatures,” said Const. Kelsey Davidge.

Related Stories:

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• Man dies after falling through ice, 2nd fatal incident in Alberta over holidays: RCMP

• Ottawa teen raced in socks to get help for friends who fell through ice: 911 caller

A Chestermere mom, Emily Hellyer, says she is confident that the ice is safe after officials gave the go-ahead and is very happy to be participating in the annual event as part of her family’s holiday traditions.

The ice is also a part of family life as an area local.

“We also trust our neighbours because everyone goes out and we want to make sure that we look after our community,” Hellyer said.

“One day my husband will go out and check the ice the next day our neighbour will so that we don’t go on the ice unless it’s safe and we also make sure that if we see kids on the ice when it’s not safe that we’ll call them off so everybody kind of looks after each other.”